Fifth series of ITV’s Scott & Bailey reverses downward trend
Manchester’s dynamic duo returned to ITV’s screens last night with 9pm bringing a brand new series of crime drama Scott & Bailey, albeit in a much shorter form.
The fifth series from Happy Valley creator Sally Wainwright saw the titular characters reunited after some time apart, with the new series only consisting of three episodes, rather than the usual eight.
The first series of the refreshingly feminist psycho-hunting show – a sort of gritty Northern Cagney & Lacey – debuted with an impressive 7.3 million viewers back in May 2011 before falling to 5.2 million viewers for the finale.
Opening episodes have since failed to match that achievement, with the second series falling slightly to 6.7 million. Despite continued critical acclaim each subsequent series has launched with a lower audience – the third series bagged 5.8 million viewers in 2013.
The launch of series 4 in September 2014 brought an opening episode low of just 4 million viewers, wrapping up with a slightly better 4.2 million viewers eight weeks later.
Last night saw DC Rachel Bailey (Suranne Jones) return from her fancy job down in London to face the ridicule of her former colleagues and it wasn’t long before those pesky corpses started to pop up.
The drama, originally devised by Wainwright as a way to get more lead female characters on screen, bucked its worrying downward trend last night, with 4.6 million viewers tuning in to welcome back the pleasingly frank procedural.
The latest dark adventures of Scott & Bailey managed to secured the 9pm slot for ITV with a 22% share but it remains to be seen if this shorter mini-series does a better job of retaining interest.
Meanwhile over on BBC One, a spot of football saw MasterChef (9pm) propelled into the prestigious prime time slot, as the 23rd series of the never-ending competitive culinary show offered up some more of the same.
4.2 million viewers watched as another batch of hopefuls cooked up a storm as judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace gave their best panto villain faces, resulting in a 20% share.
Elsewhere, the 9pm schedule was chock-a-block with workplace docs of varying quality.
[advert position=”left”]BBC Two kicked off a new two-part look at women too posh to push in the first half of Five Star Babies: Inside the Portland Hospital (9pm). The behind the curtains look at Britain’s only private maternity hospital brought in 1.3 million viewers and a 6% share.
Things were a little less plush in Channel 4’s hospital of choice, London’s St George’s Hospital, in the latest bloody instalment of 24 Hours in A&E (9pm).
1.5 million viewers watched the latest flurry of special guest stars being rushed through the doors, netting a 7% share.
Possibly less rewarding than being a midwife, nurse or doctor was the task at hand on Can’t Pay? We’ll Take It Away (Channel 5, 9pm) as those charming chaps chased down some more seriously desperate people and secured 1.3 million viewers and a 6% share in the process.
Most of BBC One’s evening schedule was handed over to the latest Match of the Day Live, with coverage of the FA Cup sixth-round replay starting at the 7pm kick off.
An average audience of 5.3 million viewers tuned in to see West Ham United once again face off against Manchester United, resulting in a 27% share.
The audience peaked in the final throes of the game around 8:45pm, with 6.3 million viewers watching the final 15 minutes.
Over on BBC Two, Horizon (8pm) had 1 million viewers reaching for a midweek drink with The End of the Solar System giving us new things to worry about while netting a 5% share.
On ITV there was a new variety show Tonight at the London Palladium at 8pm, with the Bradley Walsh-fronted fun securing 3.4 million viewers and a 16% share.
There was some more real-life medical drama over on Channel 4 and Channel 5 at the same time with The Supervet and GPs: Behind Closed Doors bringing in 2.1 million and 1.1 million viewers respectively.
Earlier on in the day, there was some more tense court action in Emmerdale (7pm), with 5.2 million viewers and a 29% share tuning in to for the abuse storyline.
Straight up afterwards, the latest drama from Coronation Street (7:30pm) secured Wednesday’s number one spot, which saw Maria Connor returning from her extended trip to Cyprus with a gay husband (a new one).
5.9 million viewers watched the predictable drama unfold as Maria and her boyfriend’s arguing helped pad out the midweek trip to Weatherfield, netting a 29% share.
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.
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